La Grace de Lune
by o0whitelily0o
Summary: Draco is left with the bleak memories and a stained soul after working under Voldemort. But all stains can be removed, given a patient hand. [oneshot][LunaxDraco, slight LunaxNeville]


Draco had forgotten a lot of things they did together over the years. Dates, people, places; nothing really stuck in his mind after he and Luna had gone their separate ways. But two nights would always stay fresh in his mind, even all these years later, when his second child (another boy, five years younger than his first) was starting his second year at Hogwarts.

The first had taken place not long after Voldemort had been killed, on the Astronomy tower. He could no longer remember why he had come up there in the first place- twenty-four years did that to people. Perhaps he had been worrying about whether or not he and his parents would go to Azkaban… yes, that was probably it. Even though they had helped Harry in the end, the crimes they had committed before were terrible. He could not deny that, and every single one he had committed was stained into his mind.

He had been so consumed by these thoughts, that he hadn't even heard her coming up behind him, until she said quietly, "What's your favorite constellation?"

Jumping slightly, he turned quickly, only to see the blonde Ravenclaw he had come to know as 'Luna Lovegood'. He relaxed slightly, before realizing that she was still waiting for an answer, so he said simply, "I don't have one."

She just smiled and said, "Mine is Scorpius." At that, he couldn't help but to a double take.

"Scorpius? The scorpion who killed Orion the hunter? Isn't that a little… violent?" He said, not being able to hide his confusion. True, Luna was odd, but she had always seemed to be a bit of a pacifist. But you know what they say, it was the quiet ones you had to watch out for.

"I suppose so, but that isn't why I like him." She smiled, and looked up at the sky. "I like him because he makes me _wonder_." Draco didn't interrupt- for some reason, she didn't look like she was finished. "After all, the legends only say that he killed Orion because he was ordered to by Apollo. But for such a fearsome beast to obey orders- well, doesn't it seem a bit strange to you? Did he have his own reasons for wanting to kill Orion? If so, what were they? Perhaps he was in love with Artemis himself, and was jealous because he knew that she could never love a scorpion. Or perhaps Orion had wronged him in some way, and he was yearning for the opportunity to get revenge. " As she spoke, she became more and more animated, her silver-blue eyes almost illuminating her face. She turned to him with an aura of excitement. "Scorpius is full of possibilities, both good and bad. And each one is more exciting then the next."

For a minute, he was speechless. Never before had he considered what might be behind the legends before. He had always taken things at face value.

But now, as he looked up at the chips of silver in the unerring expanse of indigo… he wondered if there might be something more behind it.

* * *

The days turned into weeks, and his family had managed to stay out of Azkaban through some miracle or fluke. And as time continued to pass, he found himself spending more and more of it with Luna. She had a way of making him feel redeemable… like there was a way for him to rise above what he had been forced to do under Voldemort's orders. A way to wash away the filth that had choked his heart for so long. A way to be saved.

His parents didn't object to it- they were much more subdued then they used to be, and how could he blame them? They had gone through even worse things then he had, and they did not have the same thing that he did. He could not help them the way Luna was helping him. He did not know how.

As the seasons changed, so did his feelings towards the Ravenclaw girl. The change was subtle, but undeniable. In the beginning, he had only been clinging desperately to her, trying not to drown in the dark memories of his time over the past year. Now, though… now he wanted to help her too. To somehow give back everything she had done for him, and more. He wanted to be with her, not just for her saving grace, but for the way she waved her arms around in an attempt to shoo away the nargals. For the way her eyes lit up with passion when she started talking about her thoughts and dreams. For the way her hair fell down her back as she walked by in the hall.

For so long, he tried to articulate just how he felt, that he eventually realized he was overcomplicating things. He loved her, and he just hadn't known the words.

Something that tortured him even now was that he never told her. Oh, he had always planned on it, to be sure, but somehow those three little words never seemed to be enough. And he was always waiting for the perfect moment. No matter what they did together, nothing was ever good enough for a confession.

He probably would have eventually, but there was one more night to come that would assure he would never do so.

It was in the Room of Requirement. Draco hadn't been down there in so long- too many memories- but he had seen Luna go in, and curiosity won over his hesitation.

The room he entered was filled with books on Defense Against the Dark Arts, anti-dark magic weapons, and all manner of pillows, targets, and mirrors. It didn't take him long to realize that this must have been what the Dumbledore's Army's meeting room looked like.

There she was, standing by a bookshelf, looking preoccupied as usual. He wasn't even sure she had heard him come in, but she must have, since she spoke without turning around. "There are no such things as Crumpled-Horned Snorcaxes, are there?"

Somehow, she was always able to surprise him.

"My dad used to tell me all about them after my mother died. All about them, nargals, heliopaths, and wrackspurts… and he was always so detailed, they I didn't think there could be anyway for them not to exist." Turning her head, he could see a shine to her eyes, but it was far different from the glow they normally got when she started talking. "But… they aren't real, are they?"

It wasn't until the tears started to slip down her cheeks that Draco understood she was crying.

This was his chance, he realized. Now he could comfort her, help her, do exactly what she had done for him all this time. He had been wanting to for so long… and now he could.

But… how?

No matter how much he wanted to go over to her, he couldn't think of a single way he could help her. It was as if he was frozen in place, a thousand possibilities going through his head, too fast for him to grab hold of a single one and act on it.

In the end, he had done nothing. He had just stood there helplessly and watched her cry, until she had wiped her eyes and left with a single word of apology.

And just like that, he knew that he couldn't tell her he loved her. He could only take, and give nothing back. That sort of selfish love… she deserved so much better. In the old days, he would have told her anyway, and dragged her down into such a draining relationship. But he knew better now. She would find someone else to help her, someone who could give back what she gave him. That person would deserve her.

As he stood in the empty room, he knew that he could never be that person.

* * *

All these years had passed, and Draco had not seen Luna since then. He had heard of her- that she had started going out with that Longbottom man, and that not long after that had plunged headlong into the field of naturalism. The two did break up, but from what he could tell the relationship had been much better for her than theirs had ever been. In the end she married some descendent of Newt Scamander, and Draco couldn't say in words how pleased he was that he had never met the man.

He himself had married a girl he met through work- and he did love her (enough to get married and have children), but any fool could tell that her hair was the exact same shade of blonde as Luna's had been. Her eyes, however, were gray-blue. Not the same bright silver-blue that Luna's had been- simply gray. As a result, both their sons were blond-haired with gray eyes.

Sometimes, Draco wondered what would have happened if he had confessed to Luna. Would she have returned his feelings? Would he have somehow figured out a way to be all for her that she had been for him? Would his children's eyes… be brighter?

But he shook these thoughts away. They were foolish. The past was passed, and nothing he could do would ever change it. He must look to the future, to his sons, Scorpius and Corvus.

But across Platform 9 ¾, he saw a flash of silver-blue eyes, and dark blonde hair. It was _her_, and no husband to be found. The small girl with her had even darker hair than her (but somehow still managed to stay in the 'blonde' category), and the girl's eyes were more blue than silver. But they were still shone with the silver's light, and there was no doubt about it that she was Luna's daughter.

They didn't say anything to one another. In fact, Luna never even turned in his direction. But when he bade Scorpius good-bye, he thought he saw a bit of a smile grace her lips.

Perhaps she had not forgotten that night either.

_A/N: I love LunaxDraco, and I am furious at J.K.R. for not leaving us fans with any speculation regarding Luna's future relationships. I mean, knowing who Ron, Hermione, and Harry ended up with should have gone without saying, but couldn't she let us guess at the rest?_


End file.
